


Interlude 2: Exiled

by orphan_account



Series: Darkstuck [6]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, DarkStuck, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-06
Updated: 2012-10-27
Packaged: 2017-11-15 17:57:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/530061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And thus we introduce the last of four new characters. BACK TO THE MAIN CAST!</p>
        </blockquote>





	1. Vagabond

The man slowly steps out of his boat into the ruins of a Florida beach. He’s half mad with hunger and thirst; he’d consumed the meager rations that the Legion had given him days ago.

The Legion. He couldn’t think about them without having the mixture of rage and sorrow rise up in torrents, threatening to overwhelm him. They laid waste to his home, killed his friends and family, but why did they let _him_ live?

Oh, Jack Noir had made a huge fuss when he took the man prisoner, destroying his small town and burning it to the ground. He made the man watch as each of his trusted companions were executed, one by one. Slowly.

Afterwards he tied the man up, paraded him around the country like a prize horse in celebration of his victory. He had made the man beg for scraps of food, forced him into humiliation and broke his pride.

And then he had let him go. Put him on a boat, gave him some food, and sent him on his way.

The man didn’t understand, but he had stopped caring a while back. While he was drifting in the sea the bombs and missiles had fallen and explosions had bloomed in the horizon. The man had been terrified, but they had stopped falling days ago. He didn’t know what had happened, but he had stopped caring a while back.

He had intended to kill himself the first chance he got, but his time adrift had changed his mind. He began to remember the fearful whispers shared amongst his guardians, the snaky rumors and fleeting gossip that circled the Legion’s men. Something about demons.

He didn’t know what they were, but he had stopped caring a while back. If they were a threat to the Legion, he would offer them his full support. He’d sell his soul if it meant seeing Jack Noir’s head on a pike.

Cautiously stepping northward, he begins to trudge in the general direction of New York. He doesn’t know how he’s going to get there, doesn’t know how he’s going to survive. But he had stopped caring a while back.


	2. Mendicant

“You _have_ to leave!”

“P-please don’t do this!”

“I’m sorry! Look, I have to worry about my family; we don’t have enough food to care for you too!”

The door on the shelter bangs open and a small red-headed woman is unceremoniously tossed out. She runs back to the door as it slams shut, banging on it and crying. “Where will I go!?”

“GOD DAMN IT, I DON’T KNOW! I’M SORRY! PLEASE JUST LEAVE Me ALONE!”

She stays there for a few hours, weeping and begging to be let in before she finally accepts the fact that no one will let her back in. Gathering herself, she slowly stands up and takes a shaky step away.

It's been months since the bombs had fallen, turning the world into a barren wasteland. What is she supposed to do? She used to be a freaking mail carrier, not a some soldier or survival expert. She's five-foot five, thin as a rail, and not exactly intimidating. And in this post-apocalyptic wasteland, there probably won’t be too many generous people running around willing to offer handouts.

What is she supposed to do?


	3. Renegade

“TIME TO DIE, YOU FILTH!”

The woman screams, hiding behind the corpse of a car as a creepy man in black robes shoots at her. “THE WORLD MUST BE CLEANSED OF SCUM LIKE YOU FOR OUR LORD TO ARRIVE!”

The woman huddles behind the car, shaking as bullets bounce off the metal frame. She can't figure out why he;s trying to kill her. Once moment she was scavenging for food in a desecrated house, the next this man had shown up and started spouting some religous nonesne. As bullets whiz by her and impact her surroundings, she slowlyrealizes with horror that he’s deliberately missing and taking his time, just to play with her and draw out her suffering.

BANG

The gunfire stops.

She meekly peeks out from behind the car to see a tall man standing before her, smoking revolver pointed at the corpse of her assailant. Sunlight glistens off of his amber hair and a cigarette dangles idly between his lips. He gives her a sad smile, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses. “Are you alright, Miss?” He asks softly.

“Ummm… y-yes. Uh…. Who are you?” She asks.

He laughs; a cruel, harsh sound. He gracefully spins his pistol on his finger before stowing it away somewhere in the tattered golden coat he’s wearing. “No, I don’t deserve a name. I’m just another Aimless Renegade, trying to dispense justice where I may.” In a voice so quiet she almost misses it: “Trying to atone for my sins.”  
He turns to walk away, crushing the cigarette out on the ground in a fluid motion.

“Wait!”

He pauses, turning to look at her.

“C-c-can I go with you?”


	4. Questant

With a cat-like grace, the girl navigates the unstable remains of yet another ruined building. At only seventeen years of age, one might assume that she wouldn’t be a threat. They couldn’t be more wrong.

She was, after all, a senator’s daughter. Her father had always been worried about her safety due to his position, so in addition to a few bodyguards he had enrolled her in extensive self-defense training, including both close combat, small weapons, and fire-arms. She had always complained about it, although it was simply for complaining's sake, for she had secretly relished the idea of being dangerous. But she had never assumed that she would actually need those skills. She just wished that she could thank her father. Too bad he had died.

He had been assassinated hours before the bombs had fallen. He had come to her, mad and raving about how he had found something. Some terrible secret stretching bad for centuries, since the founding of America and beyond. He had told her that they would kill him, but they didn’t know that she knew. He sent her to a bomb shelter, his last words reminding her of how dangerous _they_ were, but never actually naming them. But they had enemies. He had told her to go to New York, there were people there who could help her, people who could stop them. They called themselves Demons, and they were the only thing that could stop them.

She had entered the bomb shelter, and he had left to die. Of course she had pleaded with him, begged him to stay. But he just sadly smiled and informed her that they wouldn't let him live with the information he had uncovered, and the onlyt hing that he could do was let them think that loose ends were tied.

And so the bombs had fallen, destroying life as everyone knew it. Once a few of the smarter members of the shelter had discovered that the bombs weren't radioactive, the survivors slowly began to trickle back to the world. Many wanted to begin anew right there and then, but of course the girl had to decline. She had her eyes set on New York, her raison d'etre tinted by dark red lenses. There were others who had family back in New York, and they elected to travel with this girl. But the outside world had changed.

They were assualted by crazy cultists and demonic imps, and survivors quickly began to fall and die. But not the girl. She fought with an uncanny strength, desperate to reach New York. Her companions have long been dead, but she continues to press on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus we introduce the last of four new characters. BACK TO THE MAIN CAST!


End file.
